Finally, A New Post

I started up using a devotion again, "A Guide To Prayer" put out by the Upper Room. Today God really knocked my socks off (in a loving way). Here are some quotes from some Jesus lovers.

"The spiritual life is not a life before, after, or beyond our everyday existence. No, the spiritual life can only be real when it is lived in the midst of the pains and joys of the here and now. Therefore we need to begin with a careful look at the way we think, speak, feel, and act from hour to hour, day to day, week to week, and year to year, in order to become more fully aware of our hunger for the Spirit. As long as we have only a vague inner feeling of discontent for our present way of living, and only an indefinite desire for "things spiritual," our lives will continue to stagnate in a very generalized melancholy. We often say, "I am not very happy. I am not content with the way my life is going. I am not really joyful or peaceful, but I just don't know how things can be different, and I guess I have to be realistic and accept my life as it is." It is this mood of resignation that prevents us from actively searching for the life of the Spirit.

Our first task is to dispel the vague, murky feeling of discontent and to look critically at how we are living our lives. This requires honesty, courage, and trust. We must honestly unmask and courageously confront our many self-deceptive games. We must trust that our honesty and courage will lead us not to despair, but to a new heaven and a new earth." from Making All Things New by Henri Nouwen

"The words of the Lord are the seed sown by the sower. Into our hearts they must fall that they may grow. Meditation and prayer must water them, and obedience keep them in the sunlight. Thus will they bear fruit for the Lord's gathering." from Life Essential by George MacDonald

"The Lord never came to deliver men from the consequences of their sins while yet those sins remained: that would be to cast out of the window the medicine of cure while yet the man lay sick; to go dead against the very laws of being. Yet men, loving their sins, and feeling nothing of the dread hatefulness, have, consistent with their low condition, constantly taken this word concerning the Lord {http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%201:21&version=31#en-NIV-23166} to mean that he came to save them from the punishment of their sins. This idea---this miserable fancy, rather---has terribly corrupted the preaching of the gospel. The message of the good news has not been truly delivered.

The mission of Jesus was from the same source and with the same object as the punishment of our sins. He came to work along with our punishment. He came to side with it, and set us free from our sins. No man is safe from hell until he is free from his sins; free of them, hell itself would be endurable to him." From Life Essential by George MacDonald

May they cause you to think about God and life as they have mine.